Night of the Eagle (1962)

"All-Time Classic Gets UK Blu-Ray Release"

Sidney Hayers' classic tale of witchcraft, adapted by Richard Matheson and Charles Beaumont (they did half the book each) from Fritz Leiber's novel, gets a new UK Blu-ray release from Studio Canal.

Norman Taylor (Peter Wyngarde) has been enjoying a spectacularly successful career as a university lecturer. When he discovers that his wife Tansy (Janet Blair) has been practicing black magic to ensure his meteoric rise up the academic ladder he believes it to be nonsense, destroys any evidence of it, and then finds himself having to cope with the consequences.

A tremendously effective, tightly written (despite Mr Wyngarde's claims to the contrary) and well acted piece of low budget British cinema, NIGHT OF THE EAGLE benefits immensely from resourceful direction by Sidney Hayers and a subtle music score by William Alwyn (his only horror film credit). Released in the UK under that title because of the previous success of Jacques Tourneur's NIGHT OF THE DEMON, it's a film that can actually take its place alongside that as one of the standouts of British genre cinema. 

According to Studio Canal's press release this is a new restoration and the transfer does indeed look very nice, certainly better than the same label's previous bare bones UK DVD release. One does wonder, however, whether or not this is the same restoration (1080p from a 2K scan) that was recently released by the Australian label Imprint. If it was it does seem crazy that we don't get the new extras that were included on the Imprint release, especially as two of them (the Vic Pratt and William Fowler commentary, David Huckvale's appreciation) are British in origin. But we don't.

The extras on Studio Canal's UK Blu-ray release are limited to an archival Richard Matheson commentary, an interview with Peter Wyngarde that lasts 24 minutes and is very good (both of these can be found on the Imprint disc) and, original to this release, a 24 minute appreciation by critic Anna Bogutskaya. 

Consequently Studio Canal get docked points for missing off some great potential extras. On the other hand the transfer looks great, you do get at least some special features and, perhaps most important for some, at the time of writing this version can be obtained in the UK for half the price of the Australian Blu-ray, so if you all you really want is the film looking great then don't be afraid to go for this version, which also comes with four art cards.  

Studio Canal's Blu-ray release of Sidney Hayers' NIGHT OF THE EAGLE is out now